In too Deep
by FranklyJoyous
Summary: I had no idea that I would end up standing aside helplessly as my beautiful Betty wore that very jacket holding a gun on my oldest friend Archie. Screaming...
1. Chapter 1

**Three months earlier, had I known it would all lead to this, I never would have taken that leather jacket from the Serpents. I thought with the discovery of Jason Blossom's true killer Riverdale would calm down, while not return to normal, whatever that may be, but just regain a manageable equilibrium.**

 **I was wrong, so, so, wrong.**

 **I had no idea that I would end up standing aside helplessly as my beautiful Betty wore that very jacket holding a gun on my oldest friend Archie. Screaming.**

Three Months Earlier

"Juggy?"

Betty's voice rang clear in the darkness causing Jughead to jump a little. The Serpents chuckled and whistled at the very obvious feminine voice coming from inside the trailer.

"We'll let you get back to your business Junior, but you keep our offer in mind."

Jughead turned toward the door nervously, he didn't even bother correcting the bikers on his name. All that pride, all that power he had felt when putting on his father's jacket drained through his toes leaving him with the sort of trepidation only a certain blonde could instill in him. He was terrified.

One step into the trailer, then another. There she was. Looking. Oh God, he was terrified. Betty's wide eyes drilled into his. She seemed to be reading every line of his face.

"I would be an awful hypocrite if I were angry at you right now."

"Hypocrisy normally doesn't stop people from being angry at me" Jughead responded quietly.

She walked up to him and gently took his face in her hands "I guess it's a good thing that I'm weird."

Jughead swept her up in all her pink perfection and twirled her around the small trailer. "You are the furthest thing from weird Elizabeth Cooper, you are transpledent" and he kissed her giggling mouth.

"That's not a word!"

"If Shakespeare can make up words for love, then so can I!"

 **With all the pain and heartache of uncovered truths finally healing we shared a night that was truly transplendent… until morning broke.**

"Dad!" Archie bellowed holding his one good hand over the spilling blood like they do in the movies.

The arriving paramedics pulled the panicking teen from his injured father. "Don't worry Archie, it'll be fine" Fred rasped out as the paramedics lifted him into the waiting ambulance.

When Betty and Jughead arrived at the hospital Archie was sitting alone in the waiting room, his hands clean, but his cart and clothing still showing the signs of what happened. They sat down, one on either side of him, unintentionally recreating the same positions they had created as children. Betty, with one arm over Archie's back and her face as close to his as she could get, and Jughead falling loosely over the chair he was in, for all appearances not even acknowledging the other boy, except for the slight brush of one shoulder to the next.

Veronica walked across the waiting room with two coffees in her hand to this scene.

"Hey" she said softly, setting down the two steaming beverages.

It wasn't long before Sheriff Keller pulled Archie off to the side for a statement. Betty could hear low rumblings of their voices, but couldn't make out any words between them. Veronica leaned in and whispered to the others "they think it was a Serpent who was robbing Pop's and shot Mr. Andrews."

Jughead dropped his head back, closing his eyes, while Betty grabbed his hand and indignantly saying "this is getting ridiculous and out of hand. Not every bad thing that happens in this town can be tossed at the feet of the Serpents. Didn't we JUST learn this with Jason's murder?!" Her voice was climbing in the silent waiting room.

From across the room Archie and the Sheriff stopped talking and looked in their direction.

"Betts, hold the righteous rant until we're in a less conspicuous space maybe? Not that I don't appreciate the fervor…"

Jughead didn't even lift his head from the wall behind him as he spoke, just squeezed Betty's hand a little tighter.

"This isn't justice, this is profiling, and I won't stand for it!"

"Miss Cooper, we are just investigating a crime right now" Sheriff Keller said walking closer to the teens, "and I'd appreciate it you kept clear of this one please. I can't have you putting yourself in danger and potentially derailing it."

"We solved Jason's murder!"

"And your little texts to Cheryl gave him warning that we were coming for him. Is that the justice you want? A guilty man hanging himself instead of prison where he belongs? What if Cliff Blossom had escaped, or held his family hostage? What if he had come after you in revenge instead. Stay out of police matters Miss Cooper. And that's final."

The Sheriff turned and walked out the hospital doors.

"He's not wrong Betty" Archie said.

"But-"

"Please Betty, just listen to him this time, and stay out of it. I can't have you getting hurt too."

Betty hung her head in admonishment at Archie's words.

"Mr. Andrews?" a doctor called into the waiting room, "you're father's awake and asking for you."

Archie rushed through the door the woman was holding, leaving the others alone.

"Is anybody else starving?" Jughead said, a slow grin forming on his face as the two girls laughed, releasing the tension they had been holding.

 **"Archie, give me that book!" Betty yelled, cocking back the small pistol she had stolen months beforehand from the would be Ms Grundy.**

 **"No Betty. I can't do that, this book proves who shot my father!"**

 **"I don't care!"**


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two

 **-Love is a vicious motivator, even more so than hate. Love can make you do some truly awful things and yet feel no regret. I was never sure I would know what that kind of love would feel like. My parents never really seemed to care what I did. Sure, my father admitted to murder to protect me, but I'm pretty sure he knew he'd be going to jail anyway and he knew Blossom would kill him along with me if he refused. Nice gesture, but it's not quite Betty Cooper holding a gun.**

 **It was love behind every decision that leads Betty, Archie, and me to this point. If you could follow the chain of events backward, most would point to the day Pop's reopened as the start of it all, but I knew the truth. There was no starting point, everything that happened was just a part of who Betty was, so it was almost inevitable that things would turn out like this.-**

"Never has a chocolate milkshake tasted so sweet" Veronica declared and she came up for breath.

"Watch out, you keep on at that rate you'll end up with a headache," Archie said, leaning over to kiss the top of the brunette's head.

"Is it weird… being back here, Arch?" Kevin asked, then was promptly swatted by Veronica.

"A little," he said, giving a sidelong glance at the spot his father lay bleeding just days before, "but he's going to be fine, and he's even coming home soon… Hey, why are Betty and Jughead arguing in the parking lot?"

Three teenagers quickly pushed their faces to the glass watching the scene outside.

"Is that what Jughead looks like when he's arguing?"

"He's not really doing anything…"

"Yeah, that's pretty typical of Jughead arguing…"

"I didn't realize Betty's hands could move that fast…"

"oooooh…" all three burst out at once. Betty and stomped on Jughead's foot with considerable force. Other than a small wince from the boy, he didn't react, just slowly smirked and kissed the blonde on her cheek.

They walked into Pop's hand in hand.

The three teens already in the booth were making awkward chatter when the couple made it over to them. Jughead pulled a chair to the end of the table, flipping it to rest his elbows on the backrest, while Betty sat in the booth next to Kevin. Through valiant effort, the chatter continued for an entire minute before the sidewise glances ended conversation entirely.

"Betts, something tells me they were watching us…"

"So they were watching you be stubborn?"

"Stubborn? No, they're clearly worried about the damage you did to my foot."

"You're foot deserved it."

"So are one of you going to tell us what's going on?" Archie finally broke in with all the finesse of a sledgehammer.

"I was just thinking the next Blue & Gold piece should be undercover… with the Serpents."

The silence that followed Betty was deafening.

"Are you actually insane?" Kevin bellowed. Betty sent a glare at him that could freeze water.

"Everybody thinks the Serpents are killers and drug dealers but are they really? It's not fair. I want to give them a voice, tell their story. They've already offered a place to Jughead, he's separate enough right now with his transfer to South Side High that he can stay undetected" she explained.

"I don't know Betty, you're putting Jughead in a lot of danger. Not only that but what if he gets caught up in something illegal? He could get arrested and sent somewhere even further than South Side High" Veronica said calmly, looking into the other girl's eyes.

Betty's wide eyes instantly dropped. She hadn't even thought about any of the consequences that Jughead could face. When she looked back up again, she was contrite and grabbed her boyfriend's hand. "I'm sorry Juggy, I wasn't thinking. I would never want you to put yourself in harm's way like that."

Jughead didn't say a word, just put his arm around her shoulders and kissed the top of her head.

 **-Little did I know, inside that very a head a new plan had already begun to form.-**

Archie opened the door and led his wounded father in. While healed enough to go home, Fred didn't make it much further into the house, crashing on the nearest couch and laying back.

"Do you need more pills dad? A drink? what can I get you?"

Ding-dong!

The red headed teen barely had time to make it to the door before a whole cavalcade of Coopers carrying casseroles burst through the door. Betty's eyes showing embarrassment at her mother's forwardness.

"Fred, don't worry about a thing, we are here to take care of you and Archie until you're back up again. I know we've had our disagreements over the years, but you are my neighbor and I insist on being neighborly. Now, what can I do for either of you?"

Mr. Andrews was pale and sweating, holding his eyes closed tight as the domestic chaos erupted around him.

"My God Fred, you need medication!"

"No!" he rasped out vehemently.

All three of the Cooper women were now focused on Archie for an explanation.

"He is refusing to take anything stronger than over the counter. He says this town has enough of a drug problem without adding himself to the list. He even ripped up the prescription when the doctor handed it to him."

The patient lay on the couch and focused on his breathing. It was just a gunshot wound, and it was clean, with no serious internal damage. He would get through this.

He would get through this.

ouch.

"How about something to get your mind off the pain then? Television? Board Game?"

Sweat just continued to bead on Fred's forehead.

"Maybe next time Mrs. Cooper, I think I'm just going to help my dad to bed right now."

Polly then leaned over and set a neat pile on the low coffee table, "I've been collecting your mail, Mr. Andrews, I'll set it here for you to look through later. We hope you feel better."

Fred had just enough left in him to wave the women off before dropping his head back on the cushion.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

 **-How do you start to change your entire identity? Can you ever really do it? They say no matter how hard you try disguise is still at best, a self-portrait, giving light to what was already within.-**

Betty walked up to the front door of the White Snake bar, and courage she had poured into her as she was putting on her "costume" slid right back out again. She suddenly felt foolish, and alone, and very, very scared. Taking a deep breath she pushed the door open. Part of her was expecting a movie scene, silence and glass breaking as she walked through the door. That's not what happened. People just kept on with what they were doing, playing pool, drinking, talking. There was nothing scary or odd about this place that had been so demonized to her growing up.

With renewed vigor, she tried to find the bearded Serpent that gave the jacket she was now wearing to her boyfriend. When she walked up the stairs in the back of the shady bar she spotted the man. He was sitting on a beat up couch leaning in a buxom brunette's chest. Betty walked right up to him and stopped.

"Hey cutie. Mighty fine jacket you stole. How can I help you?"

Betty had no words. She wasn't tough, she couldn't even counter this guy's low-level sexism. Who was she even kidding?

"She's here for me, babe" the older woman that had been a pillow up until this point broke the screaming silence.

"Wha-" Betty started.

"Yeah, this is Kitty's kitten, don't you recognize her? Looks just like her mama." The woman stood up and lightly pulled Betty toward a back room. When they got there the other woman pushed her into a low chair and then sat across from her.

"So kitten, why are you really here?"

"Who are you?"

"If I weren't so unsurprised, I'd be hurt" she lay back in her chair and gave a deep laugh. "So you're mama's never mentioned me? I'm her best friend! The name's Betsy Bell, dear, but you can call me Birdie. Now which one of Kitty's little ones are you, Thing 1 or Thing 2?"

"My mom's not named Kitty, I think you have the wrong person." Betty started to stand up but the other woman pinned her back in a seat with a glare that was oddly reminiscent of her mother.

"I know just who you are, I just don't know which one of them you are."

"That doesn't make any sense."

"Doesn't need to make sense, you sound just like her! You don't have to be so perfect all the time, no one cares Alice!"

Betty sat back down with a start as the other woman lost her temper. "So you definitely know my mother," Betty said with a look of dark amusement.

Birdie's laughter crowed out again at Betty's words.

"I guess I need to start at the beginning with you little Kitty, but you need to answer one question for me, are you Polly or the baby?"

"I guess I'm the baby? My name is Betty… well, Elizabeth technically. Also, I didn't steal this jacket, I just… borrowed it… from my boyfriend."

"hmm… interesting… and I'll get back to the boyfriend part in a moment, but for now, a history lesson."

The next hour gave Elizabeth Cooper more insight into the past of a woman she thought she knew. Leading to more questions that she never thought she would receive answers for.

 **-That night Betty learned that her mother had grown up on the Southside, all but sisters with another young girl that lived just down the street. They turned the tough neighborhood into their very own playground. Many of the boys who were now leaders of the Serpents had been putty in the hands of these girls. F.P. Jones apparently among them. They were Kitty and Birdie. The nickname for Alice stemming from Allie, to Allie Cat, and finally settling on Kitty. Birdie was a lot simpler, she used to whistle loudly while walking through the neighborhood. Just when the girls were about to start high school Alice's father received a huge promotion and moved his family to the much more family friendly part of Riverdale, causing his daughter to switch schools. She created a whole new persona when she started at her new school, using all of her street smarts to become the perfect suburban teen, homecoming queen, and more. Leaving her friends on the Southside in the dust… including Betsy "Birdie" Bell.-**

"So you're with the Jones boy then?" Birdie asked.

"Yeah, Jughead… I was worried when the Serpents offered to take care of him. So I wanted to know… see for myself what that would mean. I just want him to be safe" she said, dipping her head down.

"You're a good girl, Kitten. And he must be quite something to have such devotion from you. He better be worth it baby doll. His father was a mess, but a good man deep down. If you keep hanging around here you have my promise of safety along with your boy's. Also, it'll drive Alice nuts if she ever finds out… I'll walk you out."

Betty and Birdie walked back through the Serpent's play room, down the stairs to the main bar area, and finally out the door. Betty felt safe yet brash standing next to this woman that so many of the tough looking bikers seemed to hold deference to.

"Sweet thing, one last thing you should probably know…"

Betty held her breath for another potential bombshell. She still hadn't even begun to process her mother's past.

"If you come back here… maybe you should try just dressing like yourself, you look like you're trying to be a hooker, but don't know what a corner is."

The blonde looked down at her clothes and blushed. Skintight leather and lace barely hiding anything, except for Jughead's jacket which she was swimming in.

"Be you, be comfortable, this is the home of misfit toys, not some den of hedonism… Ok, maybe a little hedonism, but only on a Friday night", she added with a cheeky wink.

Betty was taking her first steps to the bus stop when she saw Jughead…


	4. Chapter 4

**-Family, by nature, is messy.** **Even if your family is practically perfect in every way, there's a surprising amount of mess under the surface. Just one look at the Blossoms and their twisted ties is all it takes to understand that. But when your dirty laundry is laid bare, is there even any shelter left to hide more mess? Or is it like a leaking boat, it doesn't stop until everything you held dear is sunk.-**

Veronica Lodge stood perfectly straight, perfectly poised, and perfectly ready to bolt.

Her father was coming home today after months in prison. The last time she saw him he was being dragged away in handcuffs as the flashes of cameras blinded her. She had learned a lot in that time, about him, about her mother, and an awful lot about herself. As Smithers opened the backseat door Veronica sucked in a deep breath.

Her mother stepped out first.

It was the sight of her father's polished leather shoe that finally broke Veronica's barely held together sensibilities. She turned to bolt, but somehow her mother caught her arm and her talon-like fingers dug into the girl's arm turning her to face the man now fully out of the shiny black car.

"Veronica."

"Daddy."

"Aren't you going to give your old man a hug?"

Veronica took a slow step in towards her father and wrapped her arms around him. "Good girl," he whispered into her ear, "we wouldn't want your mother to think there was something wrong now would we?"

She slowly backed away from his chilling words and forced a smile onto her face. "Welcome home daddy, I'm so happy you're back. Mom, Dad, if it's ok, I'd like to go to Archie's now. We have some studying to do."

"Of course dear, but please be home at a reasonable hour tonight. Come along sweetie," she said, this time directing her attention to Hiram, "let's get you settled in."

Veronica jumped into the still waiting car and breathed deeply, doing her best to hold in the shaking and tears. Where had her father gone and who was this man that had replaced him. This man that was arrested in front of her and threatened her mother."

By the time she made it to the Andrews home she had entirely dissolved into tears, her makeup streaking down her face and her throat raw from emotion.

Archie ushered her inside, through the house, and back out to the garage. He held her until her crying had stopped.

It was quite some time later.

 **-What she didn't know that day is that as dark as everything felt right then, things were about to get a lot worse for her fledgling family. Something she passed and didn't give a second thought to on her way through the Andrews house was about to change her life, and the lives of her three closest friends.-**

Jughead blinked slowly trying to understand just what he was looking at. There was no possible way that his blonde Betty was the same girl laughing with this Serpent lady.

Nope.

Not that he would mind if it were of course.

This woman clearly was not his Betty though.

Betty Cooper does not wear leather.

Betty Cooper does not wear… whatever those uncomfortable yet incredibly sexy metal stomach holding things were.

This was not Betty Cooper.

She just looked like her. And sounded like her… a lot.

"Juggy!"

"uh… hi… Betty."

"You got that poor boy twisted little kitten. I'm going to let you go now, try not to torture the boy too much… or do actually, it could be fun!" Birdie gave a smirk and walked back to the bar.

"Betty?" Jughead, while logically accepting this was his girlfriend standing before him, since all evidence pointed to it, he was still struggling a bit with the acceptance of facts.

"Do I really look that bad?"

"Bad isn't exactly the w-word I would use, Sally Bowles" his usual dry response was somewhat less effective when he stumbled halfway through the sentence. Betty's wide eyes went from looking down at her clothing then slowly looking back up at the boy now standing just a few steps in front of her. The confidence she had tossed to the side earlier came back in force.

"What word would you use then?" she said with a low drawl, taking a steady step toward him.

"Betty," his voice crack on her name, "ahem.. Betty, I'm rather angry at you right now, so if you could not be so sexy, I would truly appreciate it." She took a quick look up and really studied her boyfriend then. He was angling his neck upward and squeezing his eyes shut tight. Something was clearly wrong.

"Maybe we should go somewhere else and talk," she said softly, taking his hand and pulling him a bit further away from the infamous White Snake bar. She zipped the large leather jacket up too. While she didn't think her appearance should be decided by the men in her life, she knew Jughead was clearly uncomfortable and maybe needed a little less sensory input from her just then.

"What part of 'undercover is too dangerous' made you run straight over here? Am I blowing your cover? Are you already in danger? What's going on? and why did you do this behind my back?" Jughead, never one to over speak suddenly burst out. He was breathing heavy and he was very, very scared.

"Juggy," Betty said, placing her hand over his heart, "it's ok, I'm safe. You don't have to be scared."

"I know what happens here better than you. I know these people. They may not be the worst like the Mayor and Sheriff Keller are painting them to be, but they aren't safe either."

"I'm surprised that you can be so judgmental. Of all people."

"Betty… I can't stop you can I?"

"No."

"Then it's you and me in this together."


End file.
